Developing mand and tact repertoires in persons with severe developmental disabilities using graphic symbols.
Teach the label first, then run transfer trials under EO control to get real manding—don’t expect requests to emerge from labeling alone.
01Research in Context
What this study did
The team worked with adults who had severe developmental disabilities. None could speak.
They first taught each person to label pictures with a communication board.
After labeling worked, they ran special transfer trials. The adult saw the item, then had to ask for it when the item was missing.
What they found
Labeling alone did not create requests. The adults would name the cookie but never ask for it.
Only after the transfer trials did true manding appear. The adults began to point to the cookie picture to get a real cookie.
The new requests spread to pictures that were never trained.
How this fits with other research
Buskist et al. (1988) showed that specific reinforcement makes sign language stronger. Hansen et al. (1989) add the next step: teach the label first, then move control to the missing item.
Magat et al. (2022) flipped the order. They started with mands in brain-injured adults and saw tacts emerge. Both studies agree that transfer between verbal operants works, but the starting point can change.
Cengher et al. (2020) used extinction instead of transfer. Extinction made new mand forms appear in teens with autism. Together the papers give you three tools: transfer up, transfer down, or shape through extinction.
Why it matters
If you run only tact programs, do not wait for requests to pop out. Plan a second phase. Show the picture, remove the item, and prompt the request. Fade prompts fast. The learner feels the want, sees the symbol, and gets the item. That sequence wires the mand. Use it with any AAC system.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
An important educational objective for many persons with developmental disabilities is the acquisition of verbal operants such as the mand (e.g., requesting) and tact (e.g., labeling). Mands and tacts have been described as separate response classes and several studies support this description. Consequently, an important applied issue involves implementing procedures to develop both tact and mand repertoires. The present study investigated procedures for developing mands and tacts in three learners with severe disabilities. Learners were first taught to tact, then mand food/beverage items and the utensils required to access those items by pointing to line drawings depicting the items. The results suggest that responses acquired as tacts do not readily occur as mands. "Spontaneous" manding was developed through a transfer of stimulus control procedure which brought mands under the control of conditioned establishing operations. Substantial transfer to untrained objects and transfer across response classes were frequently noted after both tact and mand interventions had occurred for some items. Variables facilitating these generalized effects are discussed.
Research in developmental disabilities, 1989 · doi:10.1016/0891-4222(89)90006-1